Sunday, March 10, 2013

Great Pizza, Just Across the Border

Mountain House

333 Rt 340Sparkill, NY 10976Although we are mainly a New Jersey food blogging couple, we sometimes like to venture across the border into our neighboring states to check out what they have to offer. Sparkill, New York is just 5 minutes out of Bergen County. We had heard from friends that if we like thin crust pizza, we absolutely had to check out Mountain House. They actually used to have a second location in Westwood, NJ, so we do not consider this straying too far from our home state. Driving up, the Mountain House is just that, a large, white house with an entrance from the parking lot into the dining room, and a front street entrance into the bar. We went on a weeknight so it was not too crowded and we were seated in a booth right away. The decor is very family friendly, and along with the amicable wait staff, made us feel very welcome.The front of the menu is just pizza; from plain cheese to a garbage pie and everything in between, the options for pizza toppings are endless. Being just the two of us, we felt like we should not be too gluttonous and picked two medium pies. The inside of the menu contains salads, appetizers, entrees, sandwiches, and more. We were told the fried ravioli were fantastic, but we came here for the pizza, so we decided not to fill up on too many appetizers. To start, we ordered a house salad with house vinaigrette to share. The salad had an abundance of ingredients including tomatoes, peppers, onions, cucumbers, croutons, olives, and cheese. It was fresh and the perfect start to our meal.

The crust on both of the pizzas we ordered were perfectly crisp, the sauce deliciously sweet, and just the right amount of cheese to compliment the entire thing. The first of the two pizzas we ordered is the fresh tomato, garlic, and basil pie. This pie was amazing; the simplicity of the ingredients were justified by how perfectly they all worked together. The second pizza was a chicken fajita pie, the chicken was very well seasoned and had a tantalizing zing at then end.

This year we are trying to find the "Best Pizza in New Jersey" and although the Mountain house is definitely worth the trip across state lines, for logistical reasons we will have to keep it out of contention. Mountain House was a great pizza experience, and for any thin crust aficionados a must stop for premium bar pies.